REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON AND
SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI
AFTER ARRIVAL CEREMONY
The East Room

10:35 A.M. EDT

Q President Mbeki, do you think your government could be doing
more to distribute the medicines for AIDS in South Africa?

PRESIDENT MBEKI: We are discussing that now with the U.N. aides
and the WHO. Our health minister has just come back from Geneva. We
want to look at all of those things so that we can move more effectively
against AIDS.

Q Is it true that you don't consider AZT necessarily a good drug
in fighting it?

PRESIDENT MBEKI: I've never said that.

Q How does that come about?

PRESIDENT MBEKI: Pure invention. Pure invention.

Q So your position is what, now?

PRESIDENT MBEKI: I've never said that. No, what was said with
regard to the antiretrovirus is that we need to ensure that we are able
to cope with dispensing. Because the WHO says when you dispense them,
you've got to have a strong enough medical infrastructure because of the
potential toxicities and counterindications.

You need to be able to supervise the patients close, but no, no, no
-- so that's why it's in the aftermath of the announcement that the
pharmaceuticals were reducing the prices. When we sent our health
minister to Geneva to talk with the WHO -- so that we see how to respond
to that. No, no, it said that there's a lot of stuff that's been
written which is not true.

Q Mr. President, we were asking President Mbeki if he could do
more to distribute the drugs that fight AIDS in South Africa. Do you
think he could do more?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Well, we've got to get them to him. He's got
to be able to afford them. And that's what my executive order was
about. And you've got these five big pharmaceutical companies now who
said they're going to help, and I think we're -- you know, in the next
couple of months, we'll see if we really can get a break for him. But
I'm very encouraged by what those pharmaceutical companies said.

And then, of course, if the Congress will pass my tax proposal to
give a big tax credit to them to develop these vaccines, I think that
will make a big difference.

Q So you think it's a question of money and not his belief in
the drugs?

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Yes, I think -- there are some drugs out there
now; we need to get them out there at affordable prices, and then we
need to develop the vaccines. And I think we'll be able to do it.